Johor has become a hotbed of video piracy, with syndicates creating websites to hawk fake DVDs and games software which are delivered free to Singapore.

The Star newspaper said the password-controlled websites offer search functions for customers to select the fake DVD movies, including blockbusters, pornographic films, and XBox and PlayStation 2 games.

DVD movies are sold to clients in Malaysia and across the causeway in Singapore for RM15.50 each, while porn titles go for RM22.20, it said.

Johor Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Committee chairman KS Balakrishnan said the syndicates used "secret rooms" to hide their goods and closed-circuit TV cameras to foil official raids.

"Once they pull down the shutters, my officers do not have the power to break into the premises," he said.

P2P downloads

Meanwhile, enforcement authorities in Penang said they had seized pirated DVDs worth RM8.4 million in that island alone last year.

They said pirates were keeping up with the latest cinema releases by downloading movies via online peer-to-peer (P2P) services like Morpheus and Kazaa.

"The pirates will then burn the movies on discs, from which they make countless copies," State Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs enforcement unit director Fahmi Kasim told the Star.

P2P allows users who are logged on to a file-sharing network to download and share software, music, video and other files with other ordinary users on the Internet, often for a nominal fee.

Like many Asian countries, Malaysia is awash with pirated discs and the latest releases are often sold even before their Hollywood premieres, sometimes for as little as one US dollar.